Chosen One

18, August 1996

Harry chuckled as he looked at his ex-potions professor. "Hi," he said with a sly smile.

Severus chuckled. "I knew you'd be back," he smiled. "You just can't stay away, can you?"

Harry shook his head. "You're too good," he said.

"Are you sure it's that?" Severus asked, opening the door to his quaint home and allowing Harry entrance.

"Well, you do provide a damn good escape."

"If you would just turn, it wouldn't be just an escape," Severus said, closing the door behind him. "You know the Dark Lord would be glad to have you in his service."

"You think so?" Harry asked, sighing and wrapping his arms around the older man.

Severus nodded before he kissed Harry. "I know it," Severus said softly.

Harry chuckled again and kissed Severus. "Then take me," he said softly.

Present day

Hermione stepped on the butt of her fag as she looked up at the house that had been her home for so long. She knew, if her parents were still alive, that they would kill her if they knew she smoked. None of that mattered anymore. She had started the deadly habit when the stress of the deaths of those she'd held dear had become so much that she'd felt she were about to crack. She couldn't bring herself to quit because she knew it would be so much worse for her mentally if she did.

She lit up another cigarette as she walked up the path to her house. She ignored the crime scene tape and opened the door.

There was blood all over the front room. The sofa was covered in it, the floor where her mother was raped, and the floor where her father was tortured...it was all bloody.

She walked into the kitchen; afraid she would find something of that night. There was blood on the chairs her parents had been set up at in that appalling mockery of a dinner and the table was caked in the sticky red liquid that had long dried. With tears in her eyes, Hermione turned away from the kitchen and went upstairs to her bedroom.

Her parents had left the room as she had when she'd moved out. Her bed was still made; the girly bedding was as immaculate as Hermione had left it. Her closet doors were shut, but Hermione knew her Muggle clothes would still be hanging. The bureau still held her prized collectables and the mirror attached to the chest of drawers reflected Hermione with the cigarette in her mouth looking as shaken as she felt. Hermione walked over to the dresser and opened the top drawer. She pulled out the book that lay at the back and opened it to a page somewhere near the middle. She ran her finger down the page and found what she was looking for--a message from Harry that she'd disregarded, thinking that Harry was talking about something completely different.

I'm changing. I can feel it. The power in me is taking over. I'm going to him.

This must have been his cry for help, Hermione thought. He must have been talking about when he was turning to Voldemort.

She believed now, that Harry was a Death Eater. She believed because she knew a memory could not be modified and be as clear as that. She slammed the book shut and threw it at the wall. So what if the police came back and found new fingerprints or moved things. She was dead to them now, no longer a part of the Muggle world. She left it all behind when she walked out of her parents home.

She put her fag out on the top of the dresser, scorching the wood. She looked up at the mirror and saw just how empty, cold, and black her eyes had become.

Overcome with a fit of rage and grief, Hermione punched the mirror, causing it to fracture in a spider web pattern. She pulled her hand away to find that the glass had cut her and she didn't care. She turned and walked out of the house before she turned her wand to it.

"Incendio," she whispered, and watched her childhood home go up in flames.

20, August 1996

Harry knelt down as Severus walked up to the Dark Lord.

"He has come to join our cause," Severus explained. "He is here to be one of your loyal Death Eaters."

"Come here, Harry Potter."

Present day

Hermione stood at the entrance to Voldemort's layer. She had never expected to come this far, but she had to know from the source if Harry was truly what he was rumored to be. She had to know from the source if her parents murder was just a night of Death Eater fun or if it had been ordered. She had to know from the source if she was ready to do what Harry was too weak to.

The door opened as Hermione took a step closer and the Dark Lord himself walked out.

"I've been expecting you," he said darkly.

"Was Harry really one of your followers?" Hermione asked before she could stop herself.

Voldemort smiled. "One of the best," he said softly. "And he died serving me."

"You killed him!" Hermione screamed. "How was he serving you?"

"He knew what had to be done for the sake of the Cause," Voldemort answered. "As would you if you were he."

"Did you order my parents deaths?" Hermione asked.

"No," Voldemort answered. "That was Harry's bit of fun. It had been a year in my service and I let him do as he pleased. He killed your parents as a testament to the death of his old life. He was shocked you never noticed his change."

"Why?" Hermione whispered. "Why would he join you?"

"He had his reasons," Voldemort answered simply. "And his reasons are his own. I will only say that Severus held great sway over him and guided him to me."

Hermione choked back a sob. Before she lost control and her life, she turned and fled.

She eventually found herself standing outside of the door to the Burrow, a place she had not been to in the months since Harry's death and she had began her hunt for answers and revenge. She wondered how the Weasleys would react to the news that Harry was a Death Eater. She wondered what they would say if they knew she had been standing right in front of Voldemort and had not uttered one single curse. She wondered what they would say if they knew she had now killed.

She walked over to the garden swing, sat down, and lit up a cigarette. She had only inhaled her second drag before the door opened and Molly walked outside.

"Hermione, put that thing out and come inside."

Hermione shook her head and stared, unseeing, at the grass at her feet as she exhaled.

Molly walked over to Hermione and sat down next to her. "Did you find what you were looking for?" she asked.

Hermione burst into sobs and Molly wrapped her arms around the younger woman. "Shh," she said in a soothing tone, rubbing circles on Hermione's back as any mother would.

"Harry did it," Hermione sobbed.

"Did what, dear?" Molly asked.

"Harry killed my parents," Hermione answered. Shocked, Molly held Hermione at arm's length and ordered her to explain herself. "He's a Death Eater!" Hermione nearly screamed. "He killed my parents!"

"Hermione, you mustn't talk like that," Molly said sternly. "Harry would never do such a thing."

"VOLDEMORT TOLD ME SO HIMSELF!" Hermione screamed, jumping out of her seat and pointing in the direction she had come from--the direction of Voldemort. "He told me so himself," Hermione whispered before she collapsed in on herself, sobbing even harder.

Molly stared white-faced at the nineteen year old. Surely the girl was joking, even if it was cruel and harsh.

Hermione's shouting and sobs had, of course, caused the rest of the Weasleys still in residence and at home to come out of the house, curious to know what the fuss was about.

Ron stopped himself from going to Hermione. Sure, they had dated, but that was in the past. Hermione had broken up with him when she went on her quest because she felt as though this was something she had to do alone and he could not go with her. To have her return in such a state, Ron was sure he should have been there at every step.

Feeling empty now that she had cried all of the tears she could, Hermione sat at the kitchen table with a cup of tea in her hands and recalled the events of the past week. She told them about meeting Lucius by chance and getting answers out of him (she left out her spell to take the memories by force by telling them that she had given the man Veritaserum) and that he had told her that Harry had been a Death Eater. Hermione said she hadn't believed the man and had, in fact, struck him for speaking in such a way. She said that he had then begun to describe the night of her parents' murder in extreme detail, leaving out that he had used Legilimens and, in fact, showed her what had happened. She did not say that she had killed him.

With tears falling down her face, she said that she had gone to her parents' house only to find the proof that Lucius hadn't been making it up. She said that she had then gone to Voldemort and asked him if Harry had been a Death Eater and that Voldemort had said that Harry had been the best one. She then told them what he had said about Harry's choice of celebration for his one-year anniversary.

Molly, Ron, Ginny, and Arthur stared at Hermione in stunned silence. None of them doubted her story now. None of them thought she was crazy or that it was a joke.

"Harry killed your parents?" Ginny asked in no more than a whisper after a few minutes.

Hermione nodded. "I didn't want to believe it," she whispered, more hot tears falling from her black eyes. "I didn't want to believe that he could do such a thing, but... even under Veritaserum I couldn't...I had to see for myself and when I went to the house I saw all the blood and--" Hermione's voice shook and broke. "I burned the house down," she whispered. "I couldn't deal with it anymore. I want this to end," she said softly, her voice no more than a mere whisper that the others had to strain to hear. "I'll find a way to make Harry pay."